Download logoG5 Sahel heads of state at a Summit on Friday in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, gave strong support to Desert to Power, an Africa Development Bank (https://www.AfDB.org/) -led initiative. The summit, "Harnessing solar energy for the socio-economic development of the G5 Sahel countries" came on the heels of a high-level technical meeting at […]

The African Development Bank (www.AfDB.org), rated Aaa/AAA/AAA (Moody’s/S&P/Fitch, all stable), has launched and priced a US$ 2 billion 3-year Global Benchmark bond due 16 September 2022, its first US$ benchmark of the year. Launched on September 11, the bond issue is the Bank’s second Global Benchmark of 2019, following a EUR 1 billion 10-year priced in […]

Innovative thinking about Africa’s conventional employment issues is what marks the African Development Bank’s (www.AfDB.org) new policy research document “Creating Decent Jobs: Strategies, Policies, and Instruments,” participants heard at the report launch, held 12 September 2019. The report elicited strong presentations and a lively debate during the event […]

Every summer the West African nation of Niger endures torrential rains which can destroy hundreds of households and trigger cholera outbreaks, often leading to major human and material losses across the country. This year, in fact, more than 200,000 people are at risk of being displaced during the rainy season due to overflowing rivers and landslides. Close […]

Download logoThe U.S. Embassy strongly condemns the violence perpetrated against humanitarian aid workers in Gambella on September 5, 2019, which resulted in the deaths of two staff members of Action Against Hunger, a non-governmental organization. The loss of these Ethiopian aid workers saddens us deeply, and we offer our sincerest condolences to their fam […]

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) supported 31 Tunisian students and university graduates with concrete opportunities to build up their skills and increase their chances of finding an adequate job, or to create their own opportunities through a 20-month project linking Belgium and Tunisia. Launched in March 2018 and running through October 2 […]

The Kingdom of Morocco has been officially chosen as the host of the 24th Session of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), to be held in 2021. At the conclusion of the 23rd General Assembly in St Petersburg, Member States of the United Nations specialized agency for tourism, were asked to choose between Morocco, Kenya and the Philippines. All three Member […]

With Mozambique devastated by drought, flooding and Cyclones Idai and Kenneth in the past several months, humanitarian partners yesterday (12/09) launched the revised Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) requesting over USD 397 million to support affected populations. The HRP – which comes six months after Cyclone Idai made landfall and was shortly followed by C […]

The U.S. Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) today announced a grant to West Africa LNG Group Guinea SA (WA-LNG) for a feasibility study to assess the economic, financial and technical viability of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) receiving terminal and distribution network near the Port of Kamsar in the Boké region of Guinea. The study will be conducted by Pl […]

Download logoThe World Health Organization (WHO) congratulates the Government of Kenya for launching the world’s first malaria vaccine today in Homa Bay County, western Kenya. The malaria vaccine pilot programme is now fully underway in Africa, as Kenya joins Ghana and Malawi to introduce the landmark vaccine as a tool against a disease that continues to aff […]

In the latest display of deepening cracks in the West's formerly unified economic campaign against Russia, France's Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told reporters Monday that "the time is right" for reconciliation in EU-Moscow relations.

A leaked government report predicting shortages of food, fuel and medication doesn't just affect residents. Combined with days-long queues to get in and out of the UK, it could be 'catastrophic' for travelers

The president of the French Football Federation (FFF) has said he is "totally against" the interruption of football matches as a result of homophobic chants and banners, despite rules introduced by the FFF this season instructing referees to do exactly that.

The major networks were once the centerpiece of the fall in terms of pop culture. Now, they're just one more group crying for attention, in a fourth-quarter that will see an onslaught of streaming and cable fare and the launch of studio-backed streaming service Disney+ as well as Apple TV+.

Ken Burns, the renowned documentarian known for bringing American history to vivid life, debuts his latest effort on Sunday, "Country Music." The ambitious yet intimate eight-part PBS series chronicles one of the country's indigenous and most beloved musical genres.

CBS All Access has shed some light on the role of The Dark Man, confirming to CNN on Friday that "Big Little Lies" alum Alexander Skarsgard will play the villainous Randall Flagg in its limited series adaptation of Stephen King's "The Stand."

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has asked the courts to impose mandatory death sentences for people convicted of murder following a series of kidnapping and killings, including one in which his nephew died.

A U.S. House of Representatives panel on Friday demanded internal emails, detailed financial information and other company records from top executives of Amazon.com Inc., Facebook Inc, Apple Inc, and Alphabet Inc's Google, widening the antitrust probe of Big Tech.

U.S. Senator and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris on Friday asked a government watchdog to look into the Trump administration's decision to launch an antitrust probe into four automakers cooperating with California on tighter greenhouse gas emissions limits that Trump is trying to eliminate.

A lawyer for former FBI official Andrew McCabe pressed U.S. prosecutors on Friday to drop their politically sensitive case against him, citing reports that suggest they may be having trouble securing criminal charges.

Former Vice President Joe Biden returned to the campaign trail on Friday after a Democratic debate that largely reinforced his front-runner status for the party's presidential nomination, leaving his rivals searching for how to wrest away the top spot.

A U.S. federal appeals court on Friday revived a lawsuit alleging President Donald Trump violated the U.S. Constitution by profiting from foreign and domestic officials who patronized his hotels and restaurants, moving a watchdog group closer to obtaining financial records from his real estate company.

Former White House national security adviser John Bolton, who parted ways this week with President Donald Trump, resumed his old job on Friday as head of two political action committees and announced $50,000 in contributions to Republican candidates.

Democratic presidential front-runner Joe Biden clashed with progressive challengers Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders on healthcare in a debate on Thursday, defending Obamacare and pushing them to be honest about the cost of their plans.

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You are the largest tribe in Uganda, but it seems that you get used and killed all the time by opportunistic politicans, do you know why?? Because you are the majority, and because the Seat of Government is in Kampala which is located in Buganda.

Baganda are understandbly bitter because all wars have taken place in Buganda, but that is because as I said before in one of my previous emails, Buganda hosts Kampala which is the Seat of Government and most rebels or liberators always advance towards the capital which is usually the Seat of Goverment.

If you all follow the current news you will realize that Baghdad is suffering the most violence precisely because it is the Capital City of Iraq, hence the Seat of Government.

Now it seems some of you have become enarmoured of these UPC guys Edward Mulindwa and Matek. You are calling them knowledgeable, and some of you are agreeing that Kony does not exist!

Check out this link to VERIFY AND CLARIFY THAT KONY EXISTS: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Kony
Baganda DON’T BE LIKE THE USED CONDOMS ON MP SAID BAGANDA WERE. If you(Baganda) fall for the LIES AND TWISTED INFORMATION THAT EDWARD MULINDWA AND MATEK ARE GIVING YOU, THEN YOU WILL INDEED BE THE USED CONDOMS THAT ONE MP SAID BAGANDA WERE. BE SMART ABOUT WHO YOU FOLLOW.

DO NOT JUST JUMP WITH SOMEONE ANYHOW BECAUSE THEY ARE TELLING YOU BIG LIES AND THEY KNOW HOW TO TWIST INFORMATION LIKE HOW KONY DOESN’T EXIST, AND THAT IT IS MUSEVENI CUTTING OFF THE NORTHERNERS NOSES AND LIPS!

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Madrid (Spain) A group of Spanish NGOs has filed a complaint against the Spanish government, accusing it of creating in Mauritania a “small Guantanamo” where Asian and African illegal immigrants are confined, APA learnt Thursday from authorized sources.

In their complaint which has just been filed at the public prosecutor’s office, the group of NGOs asserts that the Spanish authorities have violated the International Convention on maritime search and rescue (SAR) adopted in 1979 under the aegis of the International Organisation for Migrations (IOM).

The initiators of this complaint demand that justice be rendered to the immigrants who were on board “Marine I”, a cargo boat transporting about 400 illegal Asian and African immigrants, who were stuck at high sea for several days in early February.

A diplomatic battle had pitted Spain and Mauritania on who was supposed to take charge of the ship, intercepted off the Canary Islands, and which ended with the landing of the illegal migrants at the Mauritanian port of Nouadhibou.

The illegal migrants who tried to reach the Canary coast in early February on board “Marine I” were kept for 40 days in a Nouadhibou fisheries warehouse, after they spent 12 days stranded near the Mauritanian coast.

“Spain bribed a poor country so that it will take care of foreign nationals,” the spokesman of the group, Jesus Hidalgo, said.

He added that 23 of the occupants of “Marine I” are still locked up in Mauritania and 35 were transferred and then imprisoned in Cape Verde, a country which has nothing to do with this issue.

The Spanish justice system has to determine the responsibility of the Madrid authorities in the violation of the International Conventions of protection of the rights of the immigrants and people in danger at sea.

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*”Investigators found a body in the scorched ruins of a building that burned to the ground over the weekend. It’s believed to be the remains of a young woman missing after the fire broke out.

Friends of Monica Mørch Røysland gathered outside the burned-out building where she was last seen in Holmestrand.

PHOTO: HANS O. TORGERSEN

Around 45 friends of the missing woman, 20-year-old Monica Mørch Røysland, gathered outside the building in Holmestrand on Monday, to light candles and lay down flowers.

Røysland, from the small town of Skoppum, was among those inside the three-story structure in central Holmestrand when fire broke out about 5am Sunday.

Police have arrested a 29-year-old man and charged him with arson with intent to endanger human life (mordbrann). It’s been reported that the suspect was denied access to a late-night party inside the building, and set the fire in an act of revenge.

He denies the charges again him, however, and was expected to plead not guilty at a custody hearing on Tuesday, according to his defense attorney.

Nine people including an 86-year-old woman were rescued from the inferno, and taken to hospital in Tønsberg for treatment of burns and smoke inhalation.”*

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*”Most of southern Norway was basking in sunshine and unseasonably warm temperatures this week, but clouds rolled in over Oslo on Wednesday and forecasters warned of possible storms in the mountains.

This is what many Norwegians define as the perfect Easter experience, but it may not last through the weekend.

PHOTO: LISBETH E. VIIG

Early Easter weather forecasts sounded great, with lots of sun, at least in the southern part of the country. Northern Norway wasn’t so good, with a new round of sub-zero temperatures and snow. Trondheim was hit with rain and winds early in the week.

State meteorologists changed their tune Wednesday morning, saying that high winds were likely in the mountains and the sun would likely disappear in the south. Shifting temperatures raised the avalanche danger as well.

Temperatures were due to hover around 10C or slightly lower in Oslo, but “soar” to as high as 16C on Easter Sunday. There was a slight chance of rain over the weekend.

The Norwegian Red Cross was maintaining patrols in the mountains, to aid errant skiers as needed, especially if storms arose. They urged all skiers to carefully check conditions before setting off on lengthy ski tours, have proper equipment and not to be ashamed to turn around if the weather got bad.”*

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ASMARA — Eritrea has called on Kenya to help secure the release of three of its citizens that it says Kenya handed to authorities in Somalia in January, an official statement said.

Kenya gave the Eritreans to the Somali authorities January 20 after arresting them in late December and detaining them illegally for more than three weeks, said a statement posted on the Eritrean foreign ministry Web site late Tuesday.

“The Government of Eritrea again calls on the Kenyan authorities to get the three Eritrean citizens released as soon as possible and repatriate them to their country,” the statement said.

It did not explain what the three prisoners had been doing prior to their arrest, where they had been arrested, or where they were being held.

Press rights watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said that the detainees were journalists working with Eritrean state-owned media.

The three were “working for the Eritrean ministry of information,” said Leonard Vincent, who is in charge of Africa in the RSF headquarters in Paris.

Two were working with the public television, EriTV, and the other worked with the country’s radio station, he said.

Kenyan officials were not available for comment Wednesday.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) accused the governments of Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia, and the United States Saturday of secretly detaining hundreds of people fleeing the deadly conflict in Somalia.

In a statement, the rights group detailed “arbitrary detention, expulsion, and apparent enforced disappearance of dozens of individuals who fled the fighting” between Ethiopia-backed Somali troops and a powerful Islamist movement between last December and January 2007.

HRW said that Kenyan security forces had arrested at least 150 individuals from some 18 different nationalities at border crossing points with Somalia since late December.

They were sent to Nairobi, where they were detained illegally before being deported to Somalia, from where many were then sent to Ethiopia, it said.

Horn of Africa watchers have expressed fears that Ethiopia and Eritrea, still at odds over their unresolved 1998-2000 border conflict, may fight a proxy war in Somalia.

Sources close to the Kenyatta family say she died Tuesday on the outskirts of
Nairobi where she lived. Her body is lying at the Lee Funeral Home.

So far there has been no comment from the prominent Kenyatta family besides a statement from the office of the Leader of the official Oppositon Uhuru Kenyatta sent to newsrooms Thursday afternoon, acknowledging the demise.

The country’s founding President married Wahu in 1920.

Jomo Kenyatta had two children from his first marriage with Wahu. His son Peter Muigai who later became a Deputy Minister was born in 1920.

They also had a daughter Margaret Kenyatta who was born in 1928. She served as the first woman Mayor of Nairobi between 1970 and 1976.

The most popular of Kenyatta’s wives is Ngina Kenyatta also known as Mama Ngina who is the mother of Uhuru.

Six Duke students are planning to climb Mount Kilimanjaro in August to raise money for a Kenyan school.

Sophomore Lee Miller has never been mountain climbing. But in August, he will scale Africa’s tallest mountain while raising money for a good cause.

Aug. 13, a group of six Duke students called climbWISER, including Miller, will spend a week climbing Mount Kilimanjaro to raise money for the Women’s Institute for Secondary Education and Research, the first boarding school for girls in Muhuru Bay, Kenya.

Sophomore Varun Gokarn said he is optimistic the group will reach its goal.

“We purposefully set a lofty goal for ourselves. But even if we don’t reach it we’ve still made a significant contribution to the project,” he said.

Tuition to the school is approximately $500 a year, and a sum of $50,000 would provide a complete education for 100 girls.

Jhaveri, Miller and Gokarn, along with sophomores Jason Pate, Nandini Kumar and Kevin Hwang, who is also a Chronicle photographer, said they have all wanted to climb Mount Kilimanjaro since their freshman year.

“I remember very distinctly sitting in the basement of Lilly Library procrastinating and watching the movie trailer for ‘An Inconvenient Truth,'” Miller said. “Al Gore says very, very dramatically, ‘Before the end of the decade, the snow on Mount Kilimanjaro will be gone’-so my friends said, ‘We have to go.'”

At the time, the group had not decided to turn the climb into a fundraising opportunity. But Kumar said the group eventually decided to donate to WISER because each member was somehow tied to the organization, either through the Global Health Focus program or the AIDS and other Emerging Diseases: Focus on Kenya class.

For the last five years Sherryl Broverman, associate professor of the practice of biology, has been collaborating with faculty at Egerton University in Kenya to build WISER. The school’s purpose is “reducing sexual abuse and guaranteeing [girls’] right to a safe and effective education,” according to the WISER website.

Currently climbWISER is working on raising money by tapping into personal networks and approaching large corporations in the Raleigh-Durham area. Miller said the group is being careful that all the funds raised go straight to WISER-none of the funds will be used to diffuse the costs of climbing Mount Kilimanjaro.

Several members of the group will be in Muhuru Bay before the climb this summer, piloting a course about gender, leadership and health to 30 girls. The WISER school is scheduled to be completed next summer.

Duke will host a WISER awareness week beginning April 16, during which climbWISER hopes to have a climbing wall to encourage student donations.

“The climb is an adventure of its own,” Pate said. “But it’ll also be an experience to reflect on what we’ve all done over the summer and issues we’d like to focus on in the future.”

The US admitted openly for the first time yesterday that it was actively working to undermine Robert Mugabe, the president of Zimbabwe.Although officially Washington does not support regime change, a US state department report published yesterday acknowledged that it was supporting opposition politicians in the country and others critical of Mr Mugabe.

The state department also admitted sponsoring events aimed at “discrediting” statements made by Mr Mugabe’s government.

The report will be seized on by Mr Mugabe, who has repeatedly claimed that the US and Britain are seeking regime change.

The comments are contained in the state department’s fifth annual Supporting Human Rights and Democracy report. It sets out in detail actions the US government is taking worldwide to promote human rights.

The report has had a troubled history. Three years ago publication had to be hastily delayed when details emerged about US human rights abuses at Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad.

The US, compared with the UK, was initially slow to criticise Mr Mugabe, but has since adopted an increasingly critical stance, most recently at the Human Rights Council in Geneva last month.

In an unusual piece of candour, the state department report says: “To encourage greater public debate on restoring good governance in [Zimbabwe], the United States sponsored public events that presented economic and social analyses discrediting the government’s excuses for its failed policies.

“To further strengthen pro-democracy elements, the US government continued to support the efforts of the political opposition, the media and civil society to create and defend democratic space and to support persons who criticised the government.”

While the US and British governments still insist their aim in Zimbabwe is not regime change, they have been encouraging the main opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangarai, who was beaten up last month.

The report says that while Zimbabwe is nominally democratic, the government of Mr Mugabe is “now authoritarian”.

At a press conference to launch the document, the assistant secretary of state, Barry Lowenkren, said the US goal was not necessarily regime change but to create a level playing field for all parties. He added that where there was a country with record levels of inflation, denial of basic human rights and other abuses, the US had a duty to speak out so that people in Zimbabwe knew they had support.

Asked whether US efforts to promote human rights worldwide were being undermined by the hundreds of of people being held at Guantánamo, Mr Lowenkren insisted the issue was not raised by non-governmental groups at conferences he attended and participants were more interested in what the US could do to help them in their own countries.

He also denied the report was softer on authoritarian governments allied to the US, such as Belarus, than to Zimbabwe.

Mr Lowenkren said $66m was being spent on promotion of democracy and human rights in Iran, about half of which was devoted to broadcasts from outside the country and the rest spent on support for non-governmental exchanges, cultural exchanges such as the visit by the US wrestling team and a Persian internet service.

The report is critical of Russia, noting the killing of the journalist Anna Politkovskaya.

It says: “Political pressure on the judiciary, corruption and selectivity in enforcement of the law, continuing media restrictions and self-censorship, and government pressure on opposition political parties eroded the public accountability of government leaders.

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TODAY, Rift Valley’s Mt. Elgon has notoriously gained the repute of a gangland following the raging skirmishes that have left scores of people dead, displaced, maimed…..suffering.

But the question that is not being answered is: What exactly are the forces at play that are breeding the senseless blood spill being witnessed? Here are the facts so far that traces the problem to long simmering volcano that is expressing a wish to explode.

Mt Elgon District has four administrative divisions namely Kapskwony in which members of Soy community are the majority. There is Cheptal also mainly occupied by Soys. Kapsiro is the third division and is occupied by Ndorobos. The fourth is the Kaptama which is occupied by a mixture of Soys, Ndorobos and also Luyias. The district also doubles up as the Mt. Elgon Constituency. Now, the centre stage of the violence is the Chepyuk Settlement scheme in Emia Location of Kapsiro Division.

The Chepyuk scheme was established in 1971 and even though this time round seems to be attracting hypocritical attention, the situation ever since has never been different. The scheme was hived from the Mt Elgon Forest, though the land itself has never been degazetted. The scheme was also never surveyed and no titles have ever been issued. The Soy and Ndorobos have been dwelling on the scheme without any ownership evidence with the boundaries of ones land being affixed through physical settlement and mutual agreements.

In 1975 it was proposed that the land be surveyed and each family get 20 acres but it was opposed by the soys in the belief that majority of the beneficiaries would have been because the majority of the beneficiaries would have been the Ndorobos. In turn, the Ndorobos argued that this scheme had been set aside by the Kenyatta regime exclusively for their benefit. In 1979, it was agreed that the land should be surveyed and subdivided. To those who were occupying the land and each family receive 10 acres. Once again, the proposal was opposed by the Soys who said their occupational numbers in the land was very low hence the ultimate scenario being the Ndorobos would be the major beneficiaries.

In 1989 there was a further attempt to survey the land and issue title deeds but it was found that very few people would benefit considering the number of the landless people who had by then increased and settled in the scheme. . In 2004 it was finally agreed that the land be divided between the two communities and each family receive 2.5 acres. And that was the turning point. The Kibaki administration wanted to do away with dilly dallying with the problem and wanted to conclusively do away with it.

Ignoring the Soys and the Ndorobos traditional complications in subdividing the land, an identification of the beneficiaries was conducted and the land was surveyed. In total, there were 1732 plots to be allotted. Over 7000 people applied between the months of January and September 2006.

The conditions to apply were that, an allottee must be a resident of the scheme, must have no land elsewhere, must be a holder of a national Identity Card, personally attend the vetting session. In order to arrest fears and suspicion between the two (Ndorobos and Soys) it was agreed that they be incorporated in the vetting committee composed of elders of their choice, selected from six sub locations within the scheme. The total number of plots were divided equally into two each community to vet and identify landless beneficiaries for their own communities. Such that, the Ndorobos were to allocate 866 among their landless and the Soys allocate the remaining 886 through their elders vetting committees.

Out of the 7000 applicants to the 1732 plots, it means that 5268 did not qualify for the allocations, regardless that they had lived and cultivated in the area for as long as they could remember. Further, there were those who benefited in the allotment which was 2.5 acres for each family, but previously had owned bigger land (indeed some owned even more than 500 acres.) To them, it was a loss. Then entered politics. The current Mt. Elgon MP John Serut was accused of having influenced allocation of the lands to members of his community and also some Ndorobos sympathetic to his own political cause. On his part, Serut being a staunch supporter of the President Kibaki government, accused the Rift Valley MPs opposed to the government to be the forces behind the animosity in the resettlement scheme. William Ruto, Jebii Kilimo, Franklin Bett, Musa Sirma…..were named.

There was no respite yet. As the deceptive political play raged, former members of parliament, councillors and other names (mostly drawn from the campaign networks of the incriminated politicians) were introduced into the senseless debate. Former Members of Parliament Wilberforce Kisiero and Eric Kimkung were named. A man by the name Fred Kapondi who for several times has unsuccessfully been gunning for the Mt Elgon Parliamentary seat was named to have been incited and funded some youth to attack the Ndorobos and the moderate Soys.

And the political dimension raged on. Serut was named to have financed his own gang to fight back when his own security and that of his own people was threatened by the alleged Kapondi gang. The skirmishes raged and before long, it had become a guerrilla like warfare pitting government security forces and the Kapondi gangs calling themselves the Saboat Land Defence Force. Knowing too well an encounter with Government Forces would be suicidal, the gangs focused on attacking the Ndorobos and the Soys who supported the resettlement exercise.

The gangs would strike and retreat into Mt Elgon forest where there are caves and valleys which provided a safe havens. The politicians joined the fray without much a care of disguise and through their utterances, financial actio aggravated the situation to the magnitude being witnessed today. Though unreliable independent reports indicate 150 people have died so far, equally unreliable government data gives the number as 71, they being 64 male adults, four female adults and three boys. Over 520 combined regular, Administration Police (APs) and the General Service Unit (GSU) are already on the ground battling the gangs. But in the light of political dimensions, they are experiencing grave obstacles.

And the area being near the Uganda/Kenya boarder, Security Agents on the ground say Uganda rebels are crossing over to assist the aggressors in Mt Elgon, a risky development that if not keenly monitored might in future breed grave consequences even for miles away areas of Mt Elgon.

So far, Kimkung and Kapondi have recorded police statements but are yet to be prosecuted while serut and Kisiero as well as other politicians named are yet to be tasked. The police have so far gunned down 13 attackers, arrested 290, injured 13 with a further 13 civilians being injured in the cross fire of government forces and the gangs.

Suffice it to say that, the Mt Elgon dilemma is a result of irresponsible and reckless politics that similarly in 1992/97 saw Molo, Elburgon, Laikipia, Burnt Forest and Enosopukia experience politically ignited clashes. And the area elders, probably in their urge to push for warlike conquests in the maxim “our people are not cowards” have let the situation persist. Further, the hypocrisy of religious leaders has come out in the fore, only issuing cowardly if not sectarian statements well safely out of the troublesome Mt Elgon boundaries. And since the government wont be decisive in tackling the “useless political tongues” we have around, tongues that only knows war mongering, unfortunately, the Mt Elgon will remain as volatile as it can get, deep into the future

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Talk about a catchy title! And it took a Nigerian to come up with and right the biography! The main word, enigma, means, that which can not be explained. I say a confusion. It also means a difficulty problem, and that does sound more like Raila.

He really is international for a Nigerian scholar to write his biography. I mean even his best gospel is spread, by the man himself, outside Kenya. But if I was to write his biography, I would give it a probably catchier title. How about, Raila the low flying vulture in Kenyan politics! Well it couldn’t be easy for his fanatical fans to tell the likeness but really that’s all he is.

Raila, who claims to be the creator of Kibaki’s presidency by his two words; Kibaki tosha! is not known to work much, but he does talk a lot. His says it’s called politics, talking, talking, talking. He is the most popular Kenyan politician, he says. By which I presume he means most known, and surely you pull off having your name in the papers almost everyday and you will, be known. It wouldn’t matter much what you do or says. He always has something for the media and when he runs out of dossiers, he pulls out his favourite card. My life is in danger! Being in the media this much then why would anyone need to read his biography. Hiyo tosha!

While he considers himself the most suitable to be Mr President after Kibaki’s term (since he didn’t get to be the executive prime minister he hoped to be), I would disqualify him from Kenya’s political scene. And that without questioning every thing he does or says which as we know is a lot, I would take just three of them, excluding coup attempts and destabilizing a government elect.

(1) One, he denied Kenyans their democratic right when he led his gang of power hungries in stating that Kenyans should not read a drafted constitution, but must reject it. Without reading it. By doing so, conscious of how popular and influential he is; thus easily manipulating and misleading thousands of Kenyans to base their vote on him and his bunch, he stole one of Kenya’s most historical moments. The creation of a wholly Kenyan constitution.

This I say coz it’s my strongest believe that people should have decided without the intervention of his kind of politics, if not non for that matter. The government had done a remarkable job, which deserved recognition, to not only print the constitution but also to make it within reach of Kenyans everywhere. A lot was spent on this, mentally, physically and financially. The least anyone could have down is to let all Kenyans who can read do so and make their own decision. But to incite people to burn copies of such an important document just because of a political oblivion phobia is selfish and unworthy to lead any nation!

(2)Then to run off or fly off to distant lands (read west) and wash ones dirty linen in those publics, talking ill and spreading lies about ones government, is low; way too low. Raila could not himself last a day politically in those countries where he goes to sell Kenya. He is lucky that Kenyans (some) like political jokers of his kind unquestioningly. He should by now understand that his western masters would only support or work with him for their own benefit. That’s the deal. He has convinced his followers and even himself that he, is mightier than thou, the one, the only Kenya’s saviour. How about some dignity? But times are changing, a natural mystic is blowing. Slowly, maybe, but surely Kenyans even his own devoted are starting to see him for what he is. A vulture. Because he is (3) only after what President Kibaki is building. I prefer to listen to that who says, my aim is to make Kenya a working nation with a government of national unity. Simple. And someone has already said that and is doing it too. Raila had the opportunity to show us all how hard working he is. He, like a number of others was given a ministerial responsibility in the government (not his first). But he spent his energies in backstabbing that same government (even here not his first). He wasted a lot of energy in trying to bring down the same person whom he had pronounced best for the job. He probably made his worst personal mistake when he shouted Kibaki tosha! But that is probably the best thing that he has ever done for our nation. Thanks!

While he is preoccupied with the thought that he is the best Kenya will ever have, he misses the most significant signs of all his time. The fact that no Kenyan leader in his circle of ´´illuminatas“ or outside it has ever, will ever, bow to, or, for him. They all know that it would be a dangerous mistake.

And Kenyans have neither time nor the luxury of such a mistake. His biography?…

Am yet to hear his fellow ODM princes declare him as tosha. If he is as good as he thinks he is, then how come he is not an obvious choice? The ODM leadership seem to be playing a game of wait to see who breaks first, Russian roulette. Then things will fall apart! If am asked, the man should tone down and try to read the times lest he be left nothing but the noise maker he is, without an audience, borrow a line from Saitoti ´´read my lips“ and do something honourable to attach to his résumé. Our glorious country is rising again to take its place among the stars; we cannot afford a misstep, a backward move, Moi tosha! ed. We have had enough, and like the professor said ´´ there comes a time when the interest of the nation is of more importance than personal interest“. It is our patriotic duty to ensure that the leadership of our nation does not fall into the wrong hands.One love, One Kenya.